Anyone with an internet connection can look up Greg Hunt on Wikipedia.

The entry for a few delicious minutes on Thursday included the following pearl: "Since the 2013 election, Hunt has become the Minister for the Environment. He has already proven to be terrible at his job, to no surprise".

We can't be entirely sure whether this is accurate. Just about anyone with an opinion, wicked or otherwise, can edit Wikipedia.

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Indeed, if you'd clicked on Mr Hunt's entry a bit earlier, you might have come across the following:

"He [Hunt] is notorious for using Wikipedia to conduct research on environmental issues on Wikipedia despite having access to a vast bureaucracy staffed by some of the finest and most dedicated minds in the nation, like some total turd. Critics concede that his 1990 Honours thesis on the necessity of a carbon tax was probably more academically rigorous than the manner in which he comports himself as one of the most powerful people in the country, but others defend their characterisation of the Environment Minister as an utter weiner."

This no longer appears on the site, having been excised with some haste. Mr Hunt or his staff and supporters, as anyone who searches the Wikipedia site can discover, appear to spend inordinate amounts of time frantically revising and removing unhelpful, uncomplimentary and occasionally defamatory insertions of material concerning the Minister's alleged life and times. Wikipedia has now disabled editing of Hunt's page by unregistered users.

The reference to Mr Hunt consulting Wikipedia on matters environmental, however, is accurate, more or less.

We know this because Mr Hunt has told a fair slice of the world that he puts his faith in Wikipedia.

"I looked up what Wikipedia said just to see what the rest of the world thought," he advised the BBC on Wednesday when put on the spot about whether there might be a link between Australia's latest bushfires and climate change.

"It opened up with the fact that, 'bushfires in Australia are frequently occurring events during the hotter months of the year due to Australia's mostly hot, dry, climate'."

That settles that, then. Ground-breaking research. Who would ever have imagined?

Research, even on a hackable site such as Wikipedia, can prove a little selective, of course.

If Mr Hunt had scrolled down a bit he'd have discovered a list of some of the most severe Australian bushfires, in chronological order, beginning with the Black Thursday fires of February, 1851, which are recorded as having burned 5 million hectares.

The thing about chronological order is that the current argument about a whether or not there might be a link between bushfires and climate change revolves around the unseasonal nature of the fires in the Blue Mountains and elsewhere in NSW.

According to Wikipedia's list (and it may be correct), they're the first major conflagrations over more than a century that have occurred as early as October. With the exception of a couple in November, all the rest - and there are about 40 of them - have been in December, January, February, March, and once, in April.

None of which, of course, proves anything.

Research is a contestable field, as Mr Hunt's own career, both academic and political, attests.

Why, in 1990 he won a university prize for his own thesis entitled "a tax to make polluters pay".

It argued that "a pollution tax is both desirable and, in some form, is inevitable" and noted that "even if some Liberal's [sic] constituents do respond negatively, a pollution tax does need to be introduced to properly serve the public interest".

That old treatise has been replaced by his professed faith that a carbon tax is a dreadful Labor-Greens plot, and that Tony Abbott's "direct action" plan is altogether superior.

A Wikipedia search for direct action on climate change, alas, offers no result. Which may be merciful, for who knows what mischief non-believers might wreak upon it?

28 comments

So Hunt "I looked up what Wikipedia said just to see what the rest of the world thought,"Not 'looked up Wikipedia so I could find out about climate change'Pathetic reporting and comments once again.Get a grip and do your job properly because you all are as bad if not worse than what you are trolling about.

Commenter

Poor comments and reporting

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 7:20AM

Poor etc,

So you think anonymous people from "the rest of the world" are able to provide Mr Hunt with better advice than our own scientists, experts and institutions? Really?

Seems to me that you might be the troll. And an angry one too.

Commenter

once proud

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 8:00AM

You complain about poor comments. Since yours was (until this) the only comment, it would seem you are complaining about your own comment. Which is hardly surprising, since your comment makes no sense.

Commenter

Paul D

Location

Brissie

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 8:12AM

So Hunt, after years in the shadow portfolio, needs to look up Wikipedia 'to see what the rest of the world thought'... not the hundreds of legitimate scientific reports that lead him to argue strongly for an ETS... until Abbott and the wing nut part of the coalition decided that 'direct action' was the way to go...

Commenter

Duke

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 8:17AM

I disagree but you are missing the point. I would hope that the people charged with running my country would rely on something more substantial than social media for information -and certainly not brag about it.

Commenter

Judith

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 8:30AM

I don't think so "poor reading and comprehension". It's just another graphic example in a growing list of shameful and embarrassing statements, policies and responses to what is clearly and undeniably evident to most of the educated world. But sadly not to our own pathetic government and their heads in the sand supporters.

Commenter

ADJ

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 8:35AM

The CSIRO was commissioned to produce a report on the impact of climate change on bushfires.The study was funded by the Australian Federal Government and the State Governments of New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and TasmaniaIt is found here:http://www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/getdoc/c71b6858-c387-41c0-8a89-b351460eba68/TEN.056.001.0001.pdf

I don't think climate change is partisan. I don't think it cares whether you are on the left or right side of politics.

Commenter

Tone

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 8:46AM

Checking the Wikipedia entry for Australia in 2048, it noted that Australia's decline to a parlous state by the mid 21st century whereby all the wealth was divided between just two cryogenically vivified uber centurions, Rupert Murdoch and Gina Reinhardt, can be traced back to 2013 and the election of the Tony Abbott led coalition which was notable for ignoring all facts and scientific evidence in regards to a wide range of topics and instead began the promotion of motoring enthusiasm, shooting, dinosaur parks and cruises on the Titanic. Abbott's most important reform however was the sacking of most of the Public Service and the privatising of the entire government (sold to Macquarie Bank chaired by Malcolm Turnbull and Bob Carr) and the institution of Government via Wikipedia. The entire National Debt was wiped out immediately by the sale of the thus deserted Canberra ghost town to China. This at the time was applauded by the vast majority of the populace for solving the Budget Emergency, who quickly spent their one off tax cuts and bonuses mostly on the pokies and cheap Chinese air conditioners. Note the final addendum to 2048 Wikipedia article stated that the entire Australian nation was wiped out by a bushfire in 2038. RIP. The only surviving remnant was the Canberra Ghosttown which the Chinese had encased in the giant fireproof climate controlled bubble which had served as the prototype to the much larger bubble now encasing the entire Chinese mainland. Murdoch and Reinhardt hailed the complete eradication of all vegetation and inhabitants from the continent as a boon for the mining industry which could now dig, scrape, dynamite and frack unhindered hence greatly enhancing the continents value. At least Australia lasted longer than New Zealand which disappeared in 2029, submerged by rising sea levels.

Commenter

GOV

Location

Sydney

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 1:23PM

Perhaps he should have read further down and noted the concentration of fires listed in recent decades. See: http://tinypic.com/m/fz8dwl/3 . I think the trend is up

Commenter

Citizen 8021045b

Location

Waiting next to the node

Date and time

October 25, 2013, 1:41PM

Why would an Australian environment minister have to "look up" anything for background into bushfires? Why is first interest apparently "what the rest of the world thought" about it? Is he basing his policy on opinions, or on facts and analysis? Or is that also a stupid question?

23 Oct
Environment Minister Greg Hunt has hosed down suggestions of a link between climate change and increased bushfire intensity, saying he had ''looked up what Wikipedia'' said and it was clear that bushfires in Australia were frequent events that had occurred during hotter months since before European settlement.

23 Oct
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has dismissed the comments of a senior UN official who said there was a clear link between bushfires and climate change, arguing ''fire is a part of the Australian experience''.